Baby Food in Muffin Tins?

I have been making food for The Little Fulla since he started eating solids. I still haven’t bought a single jar or whatever-they-come-in-these-days of baby food. Woot! Mind you, he’s not exactly a baby anymore. He’s almost one. ONE. How did that happen? Anyway, once he was past the puree/mash phase and onto the pieces phase I was still needing something to freeze a couple of his foods in, something bigger than the ice cube trays I had been using. The main things that I needed to freeze in portions were porridge and mince dishes. I don’t have time to make porridge every day so I cook up a big pot and freeze it. Once The Little Fulla was up to nine cubes of porridge every morning I thought it was getting a bit ridiculous. I needed a bigger freezing vessel. Then I spied the muffin tins.

Hello, muffin tins. It turns out they make pretty good freezing vessels. I just plonk the food straight in, the same as with ice cube trays, cover with plastic wrap and put in the freezer. When it comes time to get them out, you can’t really twist them like an ice cube tray, but a little water, a little push on the bottom or a little poke with a knife and they come out pretty easily. Sometimes too easily if you run water over them. Don’t do it over a dirty sink! I use a regular-sized muffin tin for porridge. The Little Fulla has two of these portions, which is equivalent to 9-10 cubes, with a bit of cooked apple (or sometimes something else, but he likes his apple) mixed in every morning. 3 minutes, 10 seconds in my microwave heats that up nicely while I go off to release and feed the chickens.

For mince and bean dishes that I cook up for him, I have been using mini muffin tins. He will have two of these portions nowadays to go with the rest of his dinner. He’s at the age where he can eat most of the stuff we’re eating now, but since we’re not very organised with dinner these days and he needs dinner around 5:15pm or he gets very hangry, it has been easier to cook bits and pieces for him after he goes to bed and freeze them. Chopped steamed veges or shredded chicken can go straight into ziplock bags or containers but I am glad I stumbled across the muffin tin hack for other things.

Scooping out the latest mince and bean dish I cooked up for The Little Fulla. I don’t follow a recipe, I just put in what I feel like or what we have at the time, minus salt. This one had beef mince, red kidney beans, onions, garlic, something tomatoish, a bit of stock, cumin, turmeric, fresh parsley, pepper and some other spices that I can’t remember. It’s not a secret recipe, really, it’s just a spontaneous one!The mince and beans all nicely stuffed into mini muffin tins, ready for freezing.

Excellent. It is great being able to make their food and have it handy in the freezer for whenever you need it. The muffin tins are very handy but what would be even better is if someone made large-cube trays just for this purpose! You heard it here first!

Yeah, I have some friends who make baby food too, but a lot of people just take the easy route. I can’t comment on the grossness of bought baby food here, but I know what I’m feeding The Little Fulla tastes good because I taste it. And sometimes eat it if I’ve held some back and he isn’t going to eat it all lol. And it doesn’t have any preservatives or weird additives in it. Plus, I can happily feed any leftovers to the chickens, knowing that there isn’t anything bad in there. They are VERY fond of his cooked leftovers, especially if there are little bits of meat. 🙂